# Fluent: An AI Augmented Writing Tool for People who Stutter

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2108.09918 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2108.09918/

## Key facts

- Cited by 2 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 7 of its 73 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 23 Aug 2021.

## Builds on (most cited first, 7 of 7)

- [BERT: Pre-training of Deep Bidirectional Transformers for Language Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1810.04805/) (2018)
- [Efficient Estimation of Word Representations in Vector Space](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1301.3781/) (2013)
- [Practical Obstacles to Deploying Active Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1807.04801/) (2018)
- [FluentNet: End-to-End Detection of Speech Disfluency with Deep Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2009.11394/) (2020)
- [Stopping Active Learning based on Predicted Change of F Measure for Text Classification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1901.09118/) (2019)
- [Stuttering Speech Disfluency Prediction using Explainable Attribution Vectors of Facial Muscle Movements](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.01231/) (2020)
- [The Practical Challenges of Active Learning: Lessons Learned from Live Experimentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1907.00038/) (2019)

## Built on by (most cited first, 2 of 2)

- [Co-Writing with AI, on Human Terms: Aligning Research with User Demands Across the Writing Process](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.12488/) (2025)
- [StutterZero and StutterFormer: End-to-End Speech Conversion for Stuttering Transcription and Correction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.18938/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Stuttering is a speech disorder which impacts the personal and professional lives of millions of people worldwide. To save themselves from stigma and discrimination, people who stutter (PWS) may adopt different strategies to conceal their stuttering. One of the common strategies is word substitution where an individual avoids saying a word they might stutter on and use an alternative instead. This process itself can cause stress and add more burden. In this work, we present Fluent, an AI augmented writing tool which assists PWS in writing scripts which they can speak more fluently. Fluent embodies a novel active learning based method of identifying words an individual might struggle pronouncing. Such words are highlighted in the interface. On hovering over any such word, Fluent presents a set of alternative words which have similar meaning but are easier to speak. The user is free to accept or ignore these suggestions. Based on such user interaction (feedback), Fluent continuously evolves its classifier to better suit the personalized needs of each user. We evaluated our tool by measuring its ability to identify difficult words for 10 simulated users. We found that our tool can identify difficult words with a mean accuracy of over 80% in under 20 interactions and it keeps improving with more feedback. Our tool can be beneficial for certain important life situations like giving a talk, presentation, etc. The source code for this tool has been made publicly accessible at github.com/bhavyaghai/Fluent.